Samsung Galaxy A8 Review

Samsung Galaxy A8 Review By Ronald

Samsung wishes to rule the mid-range smartphone segment. After facing tough competition from Chinese smartphone makers, Samsung got its game back together and it is displaying this through the Samsung Galaxy A8. A8 is a mid-range smartphone with a s...Read More

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Technical Details

Samsung wishes to rule the mid-range smartphone segment. After facing tough competition from Chinese smartphone makers, Samsung got its game back together and it is displaying this through the Samsung Galaxy A8. A8 is a mid-range smartphone with a stylish design and great specs. This is Samsung’s slimmest phone ever and it is also one of the slimmest phones that are out there. It is 5.9mm thick.

The phone packs a 5.7-inch screen making it a phablet. The screen has a full HD super AMOLED display. The Super AMOLED display hasn’t disappointed before and it won’t disappoint this time either. The phone runs on Samsung’s own chipset Exynos 5430. The processor is made up of 8 cores. Supplying power to this processor is a 3050mAh battery. There is 2GB of RAM and the current software running on the phone is android 5.1.1 Lollipop. There is an option to expand the memory of the phone using a microSD card.A8 comes with 32GB of internal storage. In the rear is a 16MP camera with LED flash and the front camera is of 5MP.

Let’s see what this phone has got!

DESIGN:

Being a slim phablet gives the A8 an edge over its competition. The sleek profile makes it easier to handle regardless of its big size and it easily fits into the pocket without any discomfort. The phone is surrounded by a metal frame giving it a stylish look. The speaker and the camera sit at the back together. Below the screen in the home button which doubles as a fingerprint scanner and above the screen we have the front camera and the sensors. The phone has an elegant look which helps it hide the mid-range smartphone tag. There are no margins left towards the side of the screen, this helps in ease of one hand use.

Coming to the display of the screen, the 5.7-inch display has a full HD resolution of 1080p. The pixel density comes out to be 386 pixels per inch. The density is pretty good for the screen size. The Super AMOLED display technology by Samsung gives the screen of this phone an amazing touch. The colors are bright and vibrant. The blacks come out really well. It will work perfectly in sunlight also and viewing angels won’t be a problem.

HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE:

The phone is running on one of Samsung’s own chipset, the Exynos 5430. The processor of the phone consists of 8 cores. Four of these cores are clocked at 1.8GHz while the other four cores are clocked at 1.3GHz. The phone has a RAM of 2GB which will suffice. As far as storage goes, there is 32GB of internal storage and it can be further expanded using a memory card. You can also use cloud storage.

The phone runs on Android 5.1 Lollipop and it has a skin over it. This is Samsung’s famous Touchwiz UI. The phone has the latest version of it which has changed quite a lot since previous versions. This time, Samsung decided to give all the preinstalled apps a little rest. Your phone will be majorly bloatware free. The Samsung store is still there, so you can download things from there also. The UI is remarkably smooth and it works without much lag. The fingerprint scanner works very well and doesn’t show any issues with recognizing the fingerprint.

PERFORMANCE:

Galaxy A8 performs extremely well for its price range. The Exynos chipset doesn’t disappoint. The AnTuTu benchmark result comes out to be pretty high for a mid-range device. Multitasking is a piece of cake for the phone. There are no hiccups while doing so. One thing you may face is the temperature of the phone rises pretty quickly during heavy usage. The temperature doesn’t become unbearable, though, so you can still use the phone at that temperature. The GPU doesn’t perform that well in benchmarks, but this won’t pose much of a problem as it manages to play highly demanding games.

CAMERA:

One of the most important features of any phone is its camera and buyers give it so much preference over other specs. The A8 has a 16MP rear camera and a 5MP front camera. Both the cameras are wide-angled so they are able to capture a bigger frame. In a group selfie you can have more people rather easily. The camera app launches pretty quickly and isn’t too complicated. The camera is mediocre in its performance and that is kind of a low for the phone. After paying a good amount of money for this phone, one would hope for it to be good with its camera.

BATTERY:

The phone has a pretty strong battery. It is a 3050mAh power battery which is very good for the phone’s range. The battery can easily last you a whole day without the need of charging more. This is true even in the case of heavy usage of the phone. By making this segment of the phone strong, Samsung has cleverly tried to woo the crowd with a long battery life.

PRICE:

For a mid-range smartphone, the Galaxy A8 doesn’t seem so mid-range when it comes to price. It is being sold for a price of Rs. 30000. This is quite high and Samsung should have done more effective pricing.

CONCLUSION:

This phone really brings Samsung back in the mid-range smartphone race. It also gives it a head start. The phone’s explicit design and the sleek body is bound to impress any onlooker. The hardware of the phone is also top notch and the Exynos chip gives a good performance giving you no lag or hiccups. The camera was a little bit disappointing and could have been improved. A8 has an amazing battery life which is highly essential nowadays.

The pricing of the phone is something which will sting you a little bit. The phone will face heavy competition from other companies. There are phones like the OnePlus 2 and the Motorola Moto X style which have amazing specs and low prices. Samsung did a very good job, but it needs to stay on the lookout.